FCT backs UBEC’s 2018 personnel audit

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Muhammed Bello, has expressed support for the on-going enumeration of personnel and pupils of basic education schools across the country.

Speaking at the official flag-off of the 2018 National Personnel Audit, NPA, in Abuja, Bello announced that the Federal Capital Territory Administration will participate as a key player in the exercise.

The minister noted that Nigeria was in dire need of accurate data of schools, their locations, the number of their teachers, available facilities and reliable information on the number of school-going and out-of-school children.

“We look forward, very keenly, to the outcome of this exercise so that policy-makers across the country and indeed, even abroad will be able to have the right information to take the right decisions,” he said.

Meanwhile, the comprehensive personnel audit which is being carried out by the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, in collaboration with local and international partners, is creating fear among unqualified teachers as their jobs teeter on the brink of termination.

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu who kicked off the exercise, at Model Primary School, Maitama, Abuja, warned that “I hope that by the end of this exercise, people who lack the relevant qualifications will be put where they belong and the relevant data that would be required to sustain the sector will be generated.”

Adamu said UBEC is mandated to carry out in concert with the states and local governments at regular intervals, a personnel audit of teaching and non-teaching staff of all basic education institutions in Nigeria, in line with sections 9(f) and 9(i) of the UBE Act, 2004.

The minister also disclosed that from 2015 till date, UBEC has released a total sum of N138 billion as matching grants to the 36 states of the federation and FCT for the development of the basic education in their domain.

Earlier, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, the audit which commenced last Monday, will determine the number of qualified and unqualified teachers in both public and private basic schools across the country.

Bobboyi said the purpose of the exercise is to provide baseline data required for proper planning in the country’s basic education subsector.

The UBEC boss said the commission is collaborating with the National Airspace Research and Development Agency, NASRDA, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, and the National Population Commission, NPC, in the exercise.